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Erica Dorn is a social systems choreographer. She educates and facilitates organizations, movements, and communities in long-vision systems transitions. She has led an extensive career in local economic development, social impact investing, business and leadership education, and experience design. In 2015, she co-founded and served as the Managing Director of the Good Work Institute, formerly known as etsy.org. She built the organization from its roots, with a focus on the design and the delivery of a first-of-its-kind bioregional fellowship program in New York’s Hudson Valley. She has worked in US Microfinance for Kiva and Accion, entrepreneurial and design education at City University of New York and School of Visual Arts, and community and leadership development in Latin America. Erica is a doctoral researcher in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University, researching and developing theory in Place Relationality. She is on the Board of Directors for Third Millennium Alliance, a rainforest conservation organization working to restore the last remnants of coastal Ecuadorian rainforests. Erica is a life-long dancer and recently completed a 4,400-mile bicycle trip across the US. Originally from Colorado, she currently resides in Portland, OR, and calls New York home.
“My mission is to develop a place network made up of residents from diverse places across the United States who will learn together to restore and build welcoming democratic communities.”
Learn more about Erica’s Landecker Democracy Fellowship project here.
Updated June 2021
More from Erica Dorn
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Towards Relational Design Practices
Senior Landecker Fellows Erica Dorn and Tara Dickman co-authored a paper on de-centering design through lessons from community organizing.
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$30,000 Raised for Senior Fellow Giving Campaign 2022
Each year, Humanity in Action launches a Senior Fellow Giving Campaign which aims to gather support from the Senior Fellow community for Humanity in Action's programming. This year, $30,000 was raised!
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Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn - Inclusive Agendas for US Suburbs
Humanity in Action asks Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn to talk about her Action Project.
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Virtual Discussion: Emerging Suburb Futures
Senior Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn's platform Suburb Futures, together with PlacemakingX and PlacemakingUS, organize a virtual discussion titled "Emerging Suburb Futures Virtual Discussion."
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The mobile public spaces of Aurora, Colorado
Landecker Senior Fellow Erica Dorn wrote an Op-Ed for discussing how Aurora, Colorado is using mobile ‘public spaces’ to address the challenges of suburban social service delivery.
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Landecker Senior Fellows Connect in Chicago
Five Landecker Senior Fellows Connect in Chicago for a much anticipated in-person gathering.
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Erica Dorn: Designing Migration Equity Summer Course at Carnegie Mellon University
In April of 2021, Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn programmed a Designing Migration Equity summer course at Carnegie Mellon University.
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Erica Dorn: Launch of Design in Transition Podcast Season II
On the 1st of October 2021, Design in Transition Podcast (Diseño en Transición in Spanish), which Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn co-created, is launching its second season.
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Erica Dorn Interviewed in Diseño y Democracia
On July 7th, Landecker Fellow Erica Dorn appeared on an episode of the podcast Diseño y Democracia, a podcast about design and democracy.
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Erica Dorn: How can we strengthen democratic institutions?
Landecker Democracy Fellow Erica Dorn reflects on the state of US democracy after the violent storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
